This website is a project of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Policy of Prof. Stephan Keukeleire and of Leuven International and European Studies (LINES). It is supported by the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network of the European Union and serves as a website companion to the book The Foreign Policy of the European Union by Stephan Keukeleire and Tom Delreux (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, 3th ed.).
The Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Policy
The Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Policy at the Leuven International and European Studies (LINES) Institute of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium) aims to bring forward education and research on the EU’s foreign policy.
The activities of the Jean Monnet Chair include:
Teaching BA and MA courses on the EU, including the course European Foreign Policy
The preparation and publication of the revised third edition of The Foreign Policy of the European Union (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, with Tom Delreux)
Video lectures on each chapter of the book The Foreign Policy of the European Union
Research on “Decentring European Foreign Policy Analysis” (see publications below)
Video lectures on ‘Decentring the analysis of European foreign policy’ and short videos with examples in ‘Voices from around the World’
A lecture series on European Foreign Policy
And this Online Resource Guide “Exploring EU Foreign Policy”
The Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Policy fits within a broader set of Jean Monnet actions at the KU Leuven, including too the Jean Monnet Networks The EU at the Crossroads of Global Order (EUCROSS) and European Transoceanic Encounters and Exchanges (ETEE) and the Euro-Asia Summer School, which are all supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU. Stephan Keukeleire is also a member of the Jean Monnet Network on EU foreign policy RENPET, a network of ten major universities across Europe and a leading pan-European professional academic association providing research and teaching on European Foreign Policy.
About the Team
Jean Monnet Professor in European Foreign Policy
Stephan Keukeleire
Professor Stephan KEUKELEIRE is Jean Monnet Professor in European Foreign Policy at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and coordinator of the ‘Leuven Institute for International and European Studies’ (LINES). He teaches several courses on European foreign policy and Europe’s position within the world in various Master's programmes at KU Leuven. In the past, he was also a visiting professor at the College of Europe and gained experience in the practice of EU foreign policy while working in the cabinet of a Belgian Foreign Minister and at the European Parliament.
Stephan Keukeleire is the co-author of the widely used textbook The Foreign Policy of the European Union (Bloomsbury, 2022, 3th ed., with Tom Delreux), which is also published in Chinese in the European Union and the World series of Fudan University. Short video lectures on each chapter of the book are available on the “Exploring EU Foreign Policy” YouTube channel.
His current research project with Sharon Lecocq focuses on ‘Decentring European Foreign Policy Analysis’. Their publications on this topic include: ‘Decentring European Foreign Policy Analysis: Towards a Paradigmatic Shift’ (2025, JCMS), ‘Critical and Problem-Solving Perspectives on Decentring EU External Action Studies’ (2023, JCER), ‘Decentring norms in EU relations with the Southern Neighbourhood' (2021, JCMS), 'Decentring the analysis of EU foreign policy and external-internal legitimacy: (re-)introducing polity’ (2018, Global Affairs), ‘Operationalizing the Decentring Agenda: Analysing European foreign policy in a non-European and post-Western world’ (2018) and ‘Beyond EU Navel-gazing: Taking Stock of EU-centrism in EU Foreign Policy Analysis’ (2016) (both in Cooperation and Conflict). The analytical framework developed in the 2018 C&C article is explained in nine online-lectures on ‘Decentring the analysis of European foreign policy’.
Selected Publications
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sharon Lecocq
Sharon LECOCQ is a postdoctoral researcher at the Leuven International and European Studies (LINES) Institute. Sharon’s research focuses on the role of non-state and hybrid actors in the Middle East and North Africa. Together with Prof. Stephan Keukeleire, she also focuses on developing a decentred or non-Eurocentric approach to the analysis of European foreign policy and of international relations more broadly. Sharon’s work has been published in International Affairs, Geopolitics, Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Global Affairs. Sharon previously worked as a teaching assistant for the Master of European Studies: Transnational and Global Perspectives (MAES programme), as a researcher for the International Peace Information Service (IPIS), and as a guide and educator in the Art & History Museum in Brussels. She holds a Master in Near Eastern Studies (University of Leuven, 2013) and Comparative and International Politics (University of Leuven, 2015). During her studies, she was a trainee at the Belgian Embassy to Egypt and worked as a research assistant at LINES.
Teaching Assistant
Emma De Swert
Emma DE SWERT is a teaching assistant at the Department of Political Science at KU Leuven. She provides educational assistance for courses regarding international and European politics, environmental politics and research methods. Emma holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the KU Leuven and a Master’s degree in Comparative and International Politics from the KU Leuven. During her studies, she completed a semester abroad at the Università di Bologna. She has a specific academic interest in migration policies.